Karzai, warlords, elections

A very good article here on the challenges ahead in the short term for Afghanistan and Karzai: it says that because Karzai used the support of so many warlords, druglords and other shady figures in order for them to mobilize voters in his favor for the elections, now, Karzai has to pay them all back with government positions (at the central and provincial levels). The problem is that Karzai is also feeling the pressure from the West to clean up his government to look better in the eyes of the international community and legitimize US efforts in Afghanistan.

The following weeks, when Karzai will make his appointments, are therefore crucial.

Excerpts:

Many U.S. officials, Western diplomats and other experts fear that Karzai will have to award positions in the central and provincial governments to unsavory figures, including regional militia leaders and power brokers who oversaw the massive ballot box-stuffing on his behalf, in return for backing his re-election.

Karzai "is too beholden to these types and he doesn't see it yet in his interest to remove them and start a clean government and be a genuine partner with the international community," said Rachel Reid, who monitors Afghanistan for U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

"The next few days, weeks and months are almost more important than the election itself as we see who Karzai appoints to his new government," she said. "This will send the signal of whether we see a new kind of governing, a more credible form of governing, or whether Afghanistan will continue to spiral into further corruption and insecurity."

"It's not enough to blame Karzai," Reid continued. "The U.S. and other major players in Afghanistan are complicit in this impunity culture. They have relationships with many of the most notorious former warlords, current criminals and militia leaders. They have high-level meetings with them, they use their armed gangs to guard their bases, they invite them to the White House. They, too, must clean up their act, or they don't have a leg to stand on when they come to tell Karzai to change his allegiances."

Other figures of concern who provided critical support for Karzai's re-election include former Helmand province governor Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, who was found with nine tons of drugs in 2005; Assadullah Khalid, a former governor of Kandahar province; and parliamentarian Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a former anti-Soviet guerrilla leader and hard-line Islamist linked to Osama bin Laden who's accused of war crimes and land theft.

Karzai also received considerable help from his brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, the main power in Kandahar, who's allegedly involved in drug trafficking and other abuses, but also reportedly receives payments from the CIA. He denies the allegations.

The U.S. defense official said there are concerns that Karzai may find himself in deep political trouble because he may be unable to keep all of the power-sharing promises he made to unsavory figures in return for votes.

"He can't deliver all the jobs he promised," the U.S. defense official said.